The idea first emerged during a 2020 Elkhorn Working Group meeting, after a Broadwater County rancher complained of trespassers.
“He was out feeding his cows in March or April, late winter, and noticed snowmobile tracks,” recalled EWG Chair Joe Cohenour, adding that elk bulls usually start dropping their antlers in mid-February. “Later that day he saw the two snowmobiles come out of the mountains, near the Elkhorns, looking for elk sheds.”
Other EWG members cited similar sightings, while Cohenour thought of an old rancher friend who lives along Prickly Pear Creek and every year kicks out trespassers walking among his cows and calves looking for whitetail drops. Looking for a legal way to address the problem, Cohenour spoke with his wife, then-state Senator, now House Rep. Jill Cohenour.
